Technician Ted combined a platform game with a genre new to Spectrum players, the adventure game. Ted's adventure is simply to complete a variety of unknown tasks around the computer chip factory where he worked. Ted's actions in one room affected events in another room, so players had to go through the game several times to get the proper result. It was a precursor to the more complex adventure games that became popular later, such as Everyone's A Wally.

Technician Ted featured two novelties, a loading screen with sprites (previously, Spectrum load screens were static), and a highly accurate collision detection system. This let players enjoy greater accuracy in their play and set a high standard later publishers couldn't follow.